Monthly Archives: July 2006

Last week, Mikey turned 6-months old. I can’t believe how old he’s gotten. He is so cute. He can’t crawl yet, but can move around the room really good by rolling. At night, he will roll and bumb his head on the side of his crib, waking him up. He has also started to get seperation anxietous when we drop him off at daycare. He seems to be able to tell that we are about to leave and he doesn’t like it!

We were refuges for a day. Friday night (the 28th), there was a propane company that exploded about a mile from our house. The next day, over concerns that a larger tank that was damaged in the explosion was about to explode, a mandatory evacuation was ordered for a mile radius around the explosion. We were in the mile. So, we went over to my sister’s house on the other side of town. The evacuation was lifted last night and we were able to come home. We were glad that there were no problems in our area. The whole evacuation area was inside of our new Ward Boundaries.

Ever since the Wife and I got married, we’ve disagreed on when our first kiss was. We both remembered that Amanda had commented on being able to see stars. She and I then drove up to Red Rock to see the Stars. We kissed up there for the first time. However, we disagreed on when it was. She though it was after seeing a movie. I thought it was after a New Year’s Eve party. Well, she called me upstairs to look at her journal, to prove that she was right.

I’ve recently opened an IRA (Individual Retirement Account), although I haven’t mailed in the check to fund it yet. It surprises me how few people my age who have started an IRA. My initial funding is only $500.00. Assuming that I do no other fundings for the rest of my life, and assuming that I get an 8% return, when I’m 65, this account will be worth $10,862.00 before taxes, $9,233.00 after taxes. If I add $500.00 each year between now and 65, this will be worth $150,753.00, before taxes. Remember, I only deposited $20,000.00.

My hope is to try to do the maximum deposit each year, which is $4,000.00 until 2008, when it raises to $5,000 a year. If I do that, this will be worth $1,397,252.00 before taxes when I turn 65. Almost $1.4 million! All I deposited was $213,000.00.

We went to St George over the weekend to see my parents and (most of) my siblings. My Dad needed some help down on his farm with a cow that was sick. It was laying on its side and couldn’t breath. My dad and I tied a rope around the cow’s feet and hooked the other end of the rope up to the back of his 1997 Nissan Pickup truck. He tried pulling the cow over, without luck. He then got out and we tried to secure the rope a little bit better. I pulled on the rope, as did my dad. We were able to turn the cow over, even though his Truck couldn’t! The cow probably would have died within the hour if we hadn’t gotten it turned over. In any case, the cow still died that evening, but at least, we hope, it was a little bit more comfortable.

Mikey is almost 6 months old. I went to go pick him up from daycare. The door to the daycare makes a funny sound when you open it. When I walked into the room Mikey was in, he was looking, trying to see who had come in. He has learned that when that sound is made, someone is coming in.

Also, Mikey will start to look at Amanda’s cat (he likes to grab it). If the cat is walking towards him and gets too close for Mikey to see, Mikey will look on the other side to see if the cat has gotten to that side yet.

Maybe all kids can do this at 6-months. But I think it sure is cool! 🙂

I went today to take Microsoft’s 70-282 test. I was almost to the testing center when they called to tell me they were closed today and were not sure how I was able to schedule an appointment for today. That a little annoying. Oh well. I’m going to have to call and reschedule. Today was such a good day to do it too.

The 4th of July is coming up. The day represents a lot of things to a lot of people. Some many think “Yeah, a day off work!”. Others “We get to blow stuff up”. Still others may just think of it as the day between July 3 and July 5. To me, I think of the freedoms we have in this country. As previous Blogs will attest, I don’t think we are perfect. However, I think we are trying to be. Let us remember on our Nation’s 230rd birthday!